Nancy E. Taylor

The development of written language awareness: Environmental aspects and program characteristics

THIS ARTICLE reports the results of a program designed to train teachers to implement a theory-based pre-reading curriculum. The study focuses on the degree to which teachers were able to implement such a program, the observable factors which characterized implementing classrooms, and the effects of implementation on the reading-related achievement of kindergarten children. The study was carried out in conjunction with a Right-to-Read grant from the U.S. Office of Education. Subjects for the effects-of-implementation analysis were 124 kindergarten students from four implementing and two nonimplementing classrooms. The results indicate that young children, even those from homes where exposure to a literate environment is not likely to occur, can develop important pre-literacy skills when the right environment is provided in the classroom. The results further indicate that children learn best in a language- and print-rich environment, characterized by many opportunities to observe, try out, and practice literacy skills in genuine communicative situations.

Monitoring of Understanding: An Investigation of Attentional Assistance Needs at Different Grade and Reading Proficiency Levels.

Abstract Good and poor comprehenders from grades four, six, and eight were directed to process one of two short narratives as editors. In each narrative, a major informational inconsistency existed. A score was given each subject based on the point at which the inconsistency was noted. As expected, younger readers and poorer comprehenders scored significantly lower (i.e., required more attentional assistance to note the inconsistency) than more mature readers and better comprehenders. A large number of younger poorer readers never appeared to detect the meaning disruption.

Children's Written Language Awareness and Its relation to Reading Acquisition:

Describes the development of an instrument which identifies what children who are just beginning first grade reading instruction know about the written language code and relates this knowledge to beginning reading achievement. A battery of seven tasks was developed to assess (a) discrimination of real writing from geometric shapes and letter-like forms; (b) segmentation of aurally presented sentences; (c) segmentation of visually presented sentences; (d) equation of oral written word lengths; (e) ability to predict from pictures; (f) completion of aural sentences with and without graphic cues and (g) competence with the metalinguistic aspect of reading. Tasks were administered to 53 first grade children and scores were analyzed by stepwise multiple regression on standardized reading test scores. Findings indicate that linguistic awareness tasks do predict reading achievement, particularly those tasks which stress the interrelationship between oral and written codes rather than those which tap characteristics specific to the writing system.

Early Head Start and Access to Early Intervention Services: A Qualitative Investigation.

This qualitative study of 32 low-income families with infants or toddlers with developmental delays or disabilities (a) examines whether participation in one Early Head Start (EHS) program increased the likelihood that the families would pursue early intervention services, (b) identifies the phases through which the EHS families progressed in accessing such services, and (c) describes how EHS helped the families obtain access. The study analyzes data from interviews, program records, and research measures. The authors found that the EHS families obtained early intervention services at higher rates than the control families. Case studies illustrate how EHS staff developed individualized strategies to help the families obtain early intervention services.

Mother and Soldier: Raising a Child with a Disability in a Low-Income Military Family

This article presents the results of a study of six low-income women, each of whom is raising a child with a suspected or diagnosed disability while also serving as an active member of the armed forces. Their experiences as they attempt to strike a balance between the highly demanding work role of the military and their role as a mother of a child with disabilities are examined. This article also discusses the personal strengths these women display, the barriers they confront, the strategies they use to negotiate competing demands, and the impact of this effort on their personal and professional lives. Practice and policy implications are drawn for early intervention and family support programs.

METACOGNITIVE ABILITY: A CURRICULUM PRIORITY

This paper reviews the concept of metacognition and argues that metacognition should be viewed as a general and pervasive aspect of cognitive development. Metacognitive skills are required for school success and schooling itself provides an excellent environment for fostering these skills. Metacognitive skills are not currently an articulated aspect of the curriculum but perhaps they should be. Metacognitive skills develop when the individual is faced with both the need to know and a source of information about strategic processes that work. Schooling requires these skills and presents many opportunities in which both need and strategy can be made explicit.

Instructional Leadership Behaviors Differentiating Effective from Ineffective Low-Income Urban Schools

Tentative links between principal behavior and student achievement.

Needs and Aspirations of the Working Poor: Early Head Start Program Applicants

This field study identified the characteristics, needs, and goals of 85 applicants for a new, suburban Early Head Start program, a recent federal initiative designed to address the needs of economically disadvantaged infants and toddlers and their families. Most applicants were working-poor, two-parent families with inadequate resources for meeting their basic needs, child-care needs, and personal wants; they had goals for becoming economically self-sufficient through more education, better jobs, and more income. Yet these applicants clearly were not a monolithic group. That the three distinct sociocultural subgroups identified within the sample differed significantly in characteristics, needs, and goals highlighted the critical importance of subgroup profiles for individualized family program planning. This also indicated the need for building coordinated and culturally sensitive community service systems and for developing and implementing individualized family service agreements to facilitate child well-being and family economic self-sufficiency.

Resettlement challenges in the land of opportunity : The experience of economically disadvantaged immigrant women

Abstract This quantitative research examines interrelationships among immigration stressors, resettlement challenges, and protective factors of resilience and spirituality of 56 economically disadvantaged young immigrant women in order to understand how these risk and protective factors influence their resettlement and roles as resources for family well‐being. The findings highlight resilience, cultural connectedness, spirituality, and hope for the future as mediating protective factors for economically disadvantaged immigrant women as they cope with the stressors and challenges inherent in immigration and resettlement.